Plumb - Line - all India guide to personal and society health...
Wonders of the World, Water, Happiness!
After several stays in a range of India's guesthouses and hotels, we were forced to think about the plumbing issues which confronted us: these are a few notes, not written to expose the difficulties which these hotel owners face in maintaining their buildings, in any derogatory way, but rather to link what we found to personal issues, and international issues...
.Hotel Ajunta in Delhi was fine: hot water and a bath, and the whole bathroom worked, what was expected for an expensive hotel, approx $25 per night booked from the UK. ($ = Pounds)
.Hotel Siddartha in Agra was wonderfully close to the Taj Mahal, friendly staff, pleasant courtyard garden, $3.25 per night, cold water only, but a drip drip drip, with an open connection to our neighbours room, so we could each listen to our neighbours ablutions!
.Shakantullam Guest House will remain close to our hearts for ever, and we may well return there, and recommend it fully. See accompanying photo of shower...Dodgy sparking switch outside fired up the geyser, sometimes. Sometimes no water at all, ask for more to be pumped to the room. Power cut every day between 8am and 10am, you can set your watch by it! Forget your morning shower! Oh yes, I dismantled and reconnected the showerheads, and advised on how to remove limescale without buying remover (fresh lime and tissue)!
.Mandawa Heritage Hotel, Jac's birthday, treated ourselves to 2 nights @ $25.00 per night! Took the Maharajah Suite! (Best Room). No Water, had to use next doors bathroom and listen to the boys hammering at the plumbing system till the early hours!
.Castellos Beach Huts, in Benaullim, nice refreshing cold shower. By the way, I havent had a warm shower since November @ Shakantullam, but thats not an issue, its usually too warm! Usually... anyway, a cute frog lived in our bathroom, with a voice more grating than Maggie Thatcher!
.Day's Guest House at Anjuna, getting expensive @ $5.00 per night, was a lovely clean place, light and airy with a cool and pleasant garden and a delightful family eager to nurse us through our ailments. Lovely clean bathroom: toilet, showerhead, gully, no sink!?...Repeated shower head cleaning exercise...
.Sea View Beach Huts, 2 showers shared by occupants of 20 huts, myself anf Jac both had nice little electric shocks... good for your elbow joint I say!
.Surya Paradise, Gokarna. Saw the first cleaning agent I have ever seen in India - a bottle of Bleach! And didn't it need it! We cleaned the loo... after that, ok really.
.Palacete Rodriguez, a mighty $10.00 + per night, and we had to ask for permission for hot water to be turned on. Allowed one hour at a time.
.Homestay, Kochi. Share tiny loo/shower with adjoining bedroom. So lock their door when you go in, lock yourself in, unlock their door when you leave, unlock your own door, then lock your door after exit! If two choose to use loo at once will probably break doors, bash foreheads and fall, wrestling, to the floor!
.TM Lodge, Madurai. It works! mmmm...nice cool shower!
So, at the end of the day, this is just a sympton of a society struggling to adapt to the modern world. I would not choose to be the person responsible for ensuring that the Mumbai sewage system can cope with the demand of the 21 century. Water, and the lack of it, may well be the predominant factor that makes people go to war in the coming years...European water is full of chemicals to keep it 'clean', here, most people can drink water that would make me ill...but, this water sometimes kills many when the fragile sewage system cannot cope.
I don't know the answers, but I have realised that the 'chemical cleanliness' of the west is not the answer for people who can teach us many a lesson about 'purity'...and that when I came out to the heat, sometimes dryness, sometimes moisture of India, what should mess up first with me? ... my own plumbing system!!
After several stays in a range of India's guesthouses and hotels, we were forced to think about the plumbing issues which confronted us: these are a few notes, not written to expose the difficulties which these hotel owners face in maintaining their buildings, in any derogatory way, but rather to link what we found to personal issues, and international issues...
.Hotel Ajunta in Delhi was fine: hot water and a bath, and the whole bathroom worked, what was expected for an expensive hotel, approx $25 per night booked from the UK. ($ = Pounds)
.Hotel Siddartha in Agra was wonderfully close to the Taj Mahal, friendly staff, pleasant courtyard garden, $3.25 per night, cold water only, but a drip drip drip, with an open connection to our neighbours room, so we could each listen to our neighbours ablutions!
.Shakantullam Guest House will remain close to our hearts for ever, and we may well return there, and recommend it fully. See accompanying photo of shower...Dodgy sparking switch outside fired up the geyser, sometimes. Sometimes no water at all, ask for more to be pumped to the room. Power cut every day between 8am and 10am, you can set your watch by it! Forget your morning shower! Oh yes, I dismantled and reconnected the showerheads, and advised on how to remove limescale without buying remover (fresh lime and tissue)!
.Mandawa Heritage Hotel, Jac's birthday, treated ourselves to 2 nights @ $25.00 per night! Took the Maharajah Suite! (Best Room). No Water, had to use next doors bathroom and listen to the boys hammering at the plumbing system till the early hours!
.Castellos Beach Huts, in Benaullim, nice refreshing cold shower. By the way, I havent had a warm shower since November @ Shakantullam, but thats not an issue, its usually too warm! Usually... anyway, a cute frog lived in our bathroom, with a voice more grating than Maggie Thatcher!
.Day's Guest House at Anjuna, getting expensive @ $5.00 per night, was a lovely clean place, light and airy with a cool and pleasant garden and a delightful family eager to nurse us through our ailments. Lovely clean bathroom: toilet, showerhead, gully, no sink!?...Repeated shower head cleaning exercise...
.Sea View Beach Huts, 2 showers shared by occupants of 20 huts, myself anf Jac both had nice little electric shocks... good for your elbow joint I say!
.Surya Paradise, Gokarna. Saw the first cleaning agent I have ever seen in India - a bottle of Bleach! And didn't it need it! We cleaned the loo... after that, ok really.
.Palacete Rodriguez, a mighty $10.00 + per night, and we had to ask for permission for hot water to be turned on. Allowed one hour at a time.
.Homestay, Kochi. Share tiny loo/shower with adjoining bedroom. So lock their door when you go in, lock yourself in, unlock their door when you leave, unlock your own door, then lock your door after exit! If two choose to use loo at once will probably break doors, bash foreheads and fall, wrestling, to the floor!
.TM Lodge, Madurai. It works! mmmm...nice cool shower!
So, at the end of the day, this is just a sympton of a society struggling to adapt to the modern world. I would not choose to be the person responsible for ensuring that the Mumbai sewage system can cope with the demand of the 21 century. Water, and the lack of it, may well be the predominant factor that makes people go to war in the coming years...European water is full of chemicals to keep it 'clean', here, most people can drink water that would make me ill...but, this water sometimes kills many when the fragile sewage system cannot cope.
I don't know the answers, but I have realised that the 'chemical cleanliness' of the west is not the answer for people who can teach us many a lesson about 'purity'...and that when I came out to the heat, sometimes dryness, sometimes moisture of India, what should mess up first with me? ... my own plumbing system!!
posted by CharlieHubberstey at 11:27 PM
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